Joystiqhttp://www.joystiq.com
Joystiqhttp://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gifJoystiqhttp://www.joystiq.com
en-usCopyright 2015 AOL, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/23/bulletstorms-red-ring-of-death-easter-egg-exposed/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/23/bulletstorms-red-ring-of-death-easter-egg-exposed/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/23/bulletstorms-red-ring-of-death-easter-egg-exposed/#comments
While it may be lost on those playing Bulletstorm on the PC or PS3, Xbox 360 gamers will instantly recognize the cheeky jab at Microsoft for that whole Red Ring of Death thing.

As our tips box can attest to over the years, every major Xbox 360 release causes the unholy specter of the Xbox 360's infamous 'Red Ring of Death' to return. The family interviewed in this BBC piece have an especially poignant tale: they just missed out on the three year warranty the product carries for the RRoD and E74 errors.

Microsoft said in a statement, "There is no correlation between the three flashing red lights error and Kinect. Any new instances of the three flashing red lights error are merely coincidental." We believe it, given our anecdotal history. It's still of little consolation to anyone who was blessed with an old, out of warranty Xbox 360 that somehow hadn't died/broken/etc.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>e74kinectmicrosoftred-ring-of-deathrrodxboxWed, 05 Jan 2011 16:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/12/police-catch-360-thief-thanks-to-rrod-return/http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/12/police-catch-360-thief-thanks-to-rrod-return/http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/12/police-catch-360-thief-thanks-to-rrod-return/#comments
Ah, the Red Ring of Death. Most cursed malady of this console generation, maligned by the casual and the hardcore alike! But for all the frustration the Xbox 360's three lights of crimson chaos have caused, here's a little good: If it weren't for a certain RRoD in Florida, one Michael Dunbar would never have been brought to justice. Dunbar was accused of stealing the console and pawning it off to a shop, but without the serial number, police told the victim that they couldn't bring him in. Fortunately, the victim's grandmother suddenly remembered she'd sent the system in for an RRoD, and a phone call to Microsoft later, they got a serial number, Dunbar was arrested by the police, and we assume the console was returned to its rightful owner.

Little consolation, we're sure, for the eight painful weeks you had to wait while your Xbox was sent back to Microsoft for repairs (two separate breakdowns for me personally). But it's good to hear that someone somewhere has been helped by Microsoft's RRoD exchange process.

Erik Estavillo -- otherwise referred to as a "professional plantiff" by GamePolitics for his laundry list of legal claims -- has subpoenaed Microsoft's Bill Gates in his suit targeting the company for his run in with the Red Ring of Death. According to court documents filed in a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the subpoena demands Gates hand over paperwork that reveal the "true and relative number of actual Xbox 360 units that have been fixed by Microsoft over the past 3 years." Estavillo also seeks data pertaining to the number of broken Xbox 360 consoles and the amount of people banned from Xbox Live for "piracy" between November 28, 2008 and 2009.

While Estavillo is looking for answers to questions every journalist has been seeking, his track record of legal battles places him in eccentric territory. Estavillo is also suing Activision Blizzard claiming characters in World of Warcraft walk at an intentionally slow pace in order to bilk customers of more monthly fees. In the claim, he subpoenaed actress Winona Ryder and Depeche Mode member Martin Gore. Estavillo has also filed suit against Sony for being banned from online play, stemming from comments he supposedly made during matches of Resistance: Fall of Man; and Nintendo, for issuing firmware updates that disabled his Homebrew Channel.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bill-gatesbusinesserik-estavillolawsuitlegalmicrosoftred-ring-of-deathrrodXbox-360Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/19/joystiq-survey-xbox-360-e74-errors-on-the-rise-since-nxe/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/19/joystiq-survey-xbox-360-e74-errors-on-the-rise-since-nxe/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/19/joystiq-survey-xbox-360-e74-errors-on-the-rise-since-nxe/#commentsWhen we recently posted about the Xbox 360's E74 error and asked for your input, we weren't prepared for the staggering response we'd receive. Within a few hours, we had dozens of emails from readers like you who had experienced this particular hardware failure (typically caused, according to unofficial web reports, by a loose scaling chip). It was surprising to touch such a nerve, but what really knocked us for a loop was what we found when we started compiling the data sent to us.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>e74microsoftnew-xbox-experiencenxered-ring-of-deathrrodxbox-360xbox-360-errorsxbox-supportThu, 19 Mar 2009 14:40:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/17/is-your-xbox-360-an-e74-victim/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/17/is-your-xbox-360-an-e74-victim/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/17/is-your-xbox-360-an-e74-victim/#comments
[Update 2: The results are in, check them all out right here.]

Considering the Red Ring of Death (to put it kindly) debacle, we're going to be extremely careful with what we say here. We're starting to see and receive numerous reports from readers, friends and in forums like this of Xbox 360s becoming the victims of an error labeled by the console as "E74." We've received only a few of these reports (two in '07; one in '08) prior to the recent barrage of complaints. When contacted, a Microsoft rep told Joystiq she wasn't familiar with the problem (the company is currently looking into it), so here's what we've been able to piece together by ourselves:

The E74 error seems to be related to video problems. It's occasionally caused by a faulty AV cord, but more often than not, the solder on the ANA/HANA (in HDMI models) scaling chip has come loose. In fact, many have reported creating a temporary fix by wrapping pennies in electrical tape and weighing the ANA/HANA down. (For the record, we're not suggesting you do that.) Before the error, the system usually starts showing graphical problems like lines across the screen or snow. It's accompanied by one red light in the lower right-hand quadrant.

So, we've got a poll right after the break where you can weigh in with your own experience. Also, if you've got more details, we'd love it if you would email us here.

[Update 1: Our friends at Negative Gamer just sent this interesting Google Trends result our way. As you can see, E74 was basically a non-issue until August of 2008. Interesting ...]

"What it comes down to is isolating and figuring out the issue, fixing the issue, and the more that we can fix the issue, and know it's fixed, then we're good going forward," said Greenberg. "We've put the worst behind us on this, but we know there are a few lagging systems, and so we want to take those and make it right."

Hopefully, Microsoft can move towards a brighter future with its more reliable Jasper technology and leave its problematic hardware past behind. Those early RROD days were really, really, really bad and we welcome any improvement in hardware quality. If not for Microsoft's sake, at least for ours. Sending out RROD condolence cards is getting old.

Speaking at the Design Automation Conference, Lewis said Microsoft tried to save a few million dollars by designing the Xbox 360's GPU in-house, rather than farming the design out to an experienced, approved application-specific integrated circuit vendor. Lewis chalked the high failure rate to Microsoft's inexperience designing such chips. "How many ASICs per year does Microsoft design? Not many.," Lewis said. "The ASIC vendor could have been able to design a graphics processor that dissipates much less power."

The brouhaha over Microsoft's ever-present Red Ring of Death is sooooo 2007. The "Red Light of Death" is the new Xbox 360-breaking craze for the oh-eight ... if a Consumerist post is the front end of a trend, that is.

Unlike the distinctive three red lights of the RRoD, the "E74" error is characterized by a blinking red light in the lower-right corner of the ring and graphical problems on the television. The problem has been known for a while but is currently not covered by Microsoft's extended three-year Xbox 360 warranty, which only applies to traditional Red Ring problems -- E74 sufferers have to shell out the money to ship their system in for repairs.

Of course, we don't know just how widespread this E74 problem is, so it's not necessarily a cause for alarm just yet. Still, we have to agree with the Consumerist that the warranty extension should apply to all sorts of hardware malfunctions, not just the common ones that get a lot of media attention. How about it, Microsoft?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>E74emalfunctionhardwarered-light-of-deathred-ring-of-deathrlodrrodXbox-360Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/13/red-ring-of-death-blame-krusty-the-clown/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/13/red-ring-of-death-blame-krusty-the-clown/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/13/red-ring-of-death-blame-krusty-the-clown/#commentsWow. It's more or less the common assumption that Microsoft skimped a bit on product testing before unleashing the Xbox 360 on the world. Anyone whose experienced the dreaded Red Ring of Death will tell you that. We have to admit though, we never realized that Microsoft had skimped this much. It seems Microsoft could have done a little more research before appointing their QA lead. See what we mean after the break.

Warning: it's suggested that only those with a sense of humor proceed past this point.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>krustyred-ring-of-deathrrodsimpsonsWed, 13 Feb 2008 17:45:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/21/rumor-the-real-reason-for-the-rrod-revealed/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/21/rumor-the-real-reason-for-the-rrod-revealed/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/21/rumor-the-real-reason-for-the-rrod-revealed/#commentsYou may recall when Bungie leaving Microsoft was only a rumor. You may also recall most of the internet calling the source of this rumor as crazy. You may also also recall that the source was soon vindicated while the rest of the internet (including us) were made to look like gibbering idiots. All of this recalling is being done in order to reveal the following: the same site -- 8Bit Joystick -- is now reporting that an inside source at Microsoft has uncovered the ultimate reason behind the Xbox 360's egregiously high failure rate.

The truth behind the Red Ring of Death, says the anonymous source, is that Microsoft rushed the Xbox 360 in order to beat Sony's Playstation 3 to market. This ambition led to lackluster quality assurance and not nearly enough product testing, and the result -- as many 360 gamers will tell you - was disastrous. Furthermore, the source notes that there is no single culprit for failures, but rather a group of faults that can lead to an RROD. Whether it be substandard heat sinks, bad solder joints, or even bad chips, a myriad of issues can lead to hardware failure.

Is it all true? It's certainly not out of the question that MS may have rushed the 360 in order to beat Sony. After all, even with the 360's very real hardware issues, it currently enjoys a healthy lead over the Playstation 3. One thing we can be relatively sure of: Microsoft isn't about to confirm the veracity of the interview either way.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>businessred-ring-of-deathrrodMon, 21 Jan 2008 11:45:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/10/ms-committed-to-360-as-most-reliable-console/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/10/ms-committed-to-360-as-most-reliable-console/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/10/ms-committed-to-360-as-most-reliable-console/#commentsSpeaking to the BBC, Microsoft's now retired golden boy Bill Gates had some interesting things to say about the Xbox 360. Addressing concerns about the Xbox 360's much publicized reliability problems, Gates admitted that the console has had its share of problems. "We certainly had to apologize to our users about a number of boxes that had to be replaced," said Gates, referring to the costly warranty extension that was enacted in July of 2007. He further notes that Microsoft has received positive feedback about Xbox service in the wake of its problems. He concludes by saying, "we've got incredible reliability on the new work that we've done, and so our commitment is that it will be the most reliable video game box out there." Considering a fellow blogger in the Joystiq network recently got the Red Ring of Death on a replacement 360 only one week after he had received it, we'd say Microsoft has a ways to go before making good on that commitment.

We enter 2008 with the current lifetime Xbox 360 failure rate at Joystiq standing at almost 100% -- we currently have one last man's console standing. Yup, that's right, and for those of you paying attention we hit 90% last month. A few of us experienced issues back in 2006, but almost every person on staff (including those who've left for other opportunities) -- with the exception of The One -- have experienced a Red Ring of Death, disc drive failure, or other non-user-error console bricking incident. There's no denying at this point that as much as we love the games, the Xbox 360 is the most defective console ever manufactured.

Check after the break for the staff's experiences with their bricked consoles. Like former Microsoft executive Peter Moore explained earlier this year, when failure is practically guaranteed at some point, all we can do is focus on the repair service.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>extensionlawsuitmicrosoftred-ring-of-deathrrodsettlementwarrantyXbox-360xbox360Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:30:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/16/got-the-red-ring-of-death-have-a-condolence-card/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/16/got-the-red-ring-of-death-have-a-condolence-card/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/16/got-the-red-ring-of-death-have-a-condolence-card/#commentsThe Red Ring of Death may not be making as many headlines as it used to, but that doesn't mean it's not still out there, lurking in the shadows, and waiting to strike down your beloved 360. In the not terribly unlikely even that this should happen to someone that you know, you might think about sending them one of these condolence cards. Handcrafted by Etsy user bsangel, the cards feature a red ring formed by glued on crystals on the front. The inside contains a simple message with a sneaky play on the word "console."

You'd better hurry though, there's only one left at bsangel's store as of this writing. Then again, you could probably make your own without much effort at all. Just make sure whoever you give it to has a sense of humor.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>fan-stuffred-ring-of-deathrrodTue, 16 Oct 2007 17:30:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/13/red-ring-of-death-t-shirt/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/13/red-ring-of-death-t-shirt/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/13/red-ring-of-death-t-shirt/#commentsAnyone who has witnessed the dreaded Red Ring of Death can tell you, seeing it first hand is a chilling sight. At first you smirk and chuckle with disbelief. "Just a hiccup," you say to yourself, "I'll power it off and on and it'll be fine." Once you see the wretched thing for a second time, it all sinks in. Well, guess what? Now you can commemorate that memory with the Red Ring of Death T-shirt from SplitReason. Taking a cue from 2001, the shirt features a particularly malicious (and smooth-voiced) Ring of Death. It's made of 100% cotton and it's pre-shrunk, so it should keep you from overheating (ba dum bum).

A word to the wise, if you're considering getting this for a friend who received the Ring, you might want to wait until after they get their 360 back.